


Root of the Problem

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe- GTA - V, Fake AH Crew, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 17:33:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20474894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: Consciousness returns to Ryan slowly. Bits and pieces. Snatches of sound. The crisp, chill air around him. Firm surface under him and the belated realization he’s strapped down.





	Root of the Problem

**Author's Note:**

> [Because reasons.](https://vagrantblvrd.tumblr.com/tagged/mouth-bone-saga)

Consciousness returns to Ryan slowly. Bits and pieces. Snatches of sound. The crisp, chill air around him. Firm surface under him and the belated realization he’s strapped down.

His head aches and his mouth tastes like death. (Feels like the aftermath of being drugged, and he should know with the enemies he’s made over the years.)

The last thing he remembers is Lindsay coming up to him in the parking garage, frown on her face and a question for him and then nothing. 

There’s something niggling at the back of his mind, maddeningly elusive. (Answers to all is questions about what the hell landed him in this situation.)

Ryan’s brain screeches to a halt as the low murmur of voices around him snaps into clear focus.

Female and male, whispering to one another and something familiar to it all.

“There’s no point to feigning sleep,” the woman says, high and clear and oh-so-formal in an accent he can’t place. European, perhaps? British roots at the very least. “We know you’re awake Mr. Haywood.”

Silence, aside from the quiet _tick-tick-hiss_ of a machine he can’t see somewhere behind him. Soft beeps and chirps and a hum that feels like it’s settled just beneath his skin. Crept into his mind while he was unconscious and made itself comfortable enough he didn’t register it until now.

Ryan opens his eyes. 

He’s in a medical office, sharp smell of disinfectant and some inoffensively bland fragrance layered on top to mask the worst of it.

The room’s lights are down low, save for the glaring one just a little off-center above him.

The woman and her accomplice stand just outside the ring of light it provides, shadowy figures with unknown agendas (grudges?) that have to do with him.

There a fragment of memory niggling at the back of his mind, elusive as hell and just out of his grasp. (He remembers the parking garage at the penthouse and Lindsay walking over to him with a question.)

“What - “ Ryan breaks off when a coughing fit hits him. Combination of his dry mouth and throat and the crisp air in the room. Just a touch too cold for comfort. “What am I doing here?”

The woman’s accomplice changes the angle of the light above him so it hits his eyes, blinding him.

When he can see again, the woman’s leaning over him.

She’s dressed in medical scrubs, hair tucked under a hairnet. A quick glance at her accomplice shows he’s wearing similar garb and Ryan dread settles cold and heavy in his gut at the sight of them and his brain finally snags that ever elusive fragment of memory.

Lindsay holding up a piece of cloth, frown on her face and that damned question of hers.

_”Hey, Ryan, does this smell like chloroform to you?”_

Ryan stares at the woman as those words echoes in his mind.

The woman smiles when she sees his reaction.

“You never gave me an answer,” she says, still in that unrecognizable accent.

Ryan darts a glance at her accomplice who meets his gaze without flinching.

“You didn’t give me a chance to,” Ryan replies slowly, testing the give of the straps holding him down.

Futile effort, but it’s all he has.

Lindsay chuckles as she walks closer to examine the restraints, calm and efficient and well-practiced with them that adds to the dread he’s feeling.

At this point he’d almost welcome the thought of being grabbed by an old enemy, someone with an ax to grind.

With Lindsay?

God, who the hell knows. Not even Michael seems to be able to understand her and he’s known her the longest.

Ryan watches her, wracking his brain to remember if he’s done anything recently to piss her off enough to go to this much trouble. Glances over at her accomplice to remember if he’s done anything to piss him off too, but nothing comes to mind.

“...What am I doing here, Lindsay?”

Lindsay pats Ryan’s hand and takes a step back. 

“Proper dental care, bitch!” Lindsay declares as she throws her arms wide and Alfredo hits the main lights for that added dramatic flair. “It's good for you!”

Ryan hisses at the sudden brightness, Lindsay’s words and Alfredo helpless giggles in his ears as he tries to make sense of it all – jaw clenching and a sharp, agonizing pain bursts into being at the back of his mouth.

_Oh,_ Ryan thinks, as horror washes over him. _Oh, no._

This is all his fault, isn’t it. Careless words and all that, and now he’s going to pay for them.

He’d thought nothing of it at the time. Forgot that Lindsay and Alfredo met way back when and bonded over the fact they had backgrounds in the dental field. Varying levels of knowledge therein, and the disturbing stories they shared with the crew about their experiences with patients and so on and _oh God, no_.

Lindsay and Alfredo like to do good deeds for the crew when things are slow and they have the opportunity. Like to pool their knowledge about dentistry to help since it’s difficult for people like them to make dental appointments. 

Something about terrorizing the honest dental professionals and so on and so forth and really, why not go to the in-house semi-experts? (You don’t want the two of them going to you about it, because that’s when things get weird. Case in point, _this_.)

When Ryan opens his eyes this time it’s see Lindsay snapping a pair of latex gloves on and tugging a surgeon's mask up over her mouth and nose.

“Don't worry, Ryan,” she says, bright and cheerful and borderline psychotic. “We’ll take care of that bad tooth of yours in no time!”

Ryan’s so focused on Lindsay as she considers a tray of dental tools that he doesn’t realize he’s lost track of Alfredo until he settles a mask over Ryan’s head, hears him ask a question that echoes the one Lindsay asked him in the garage.

“Hey Ryan,” Ryan hears as Alfredo tightens the straps of the mask so Ryan can’t wriggle his way free. “Does this smell like - “

Ryan can feel himself slipping under, knows it’s too late to stop the two of them from their good deed. All he can hope for is that this won’t end the way it did for Geoff, that they’ll remove the right tooth but he’s never been that kind of lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
